After 20 years of servicing copiers and printers, I decided it was time to offer some helpful advice to the people that operate these devices whether it is at home or in the office. What always amazed me over the years was how many service calls could have been avoided if the customer only followed some basic tips and advice on how to operate the copier. Many of the tips and advice I’m going to offer readers will not be found in the operators manual because the writers of those manuals are not in the field servicing copiers. Of course, if there are less service calls on your copier, then you or the business you work for will save money by avoiding the costly expense of having a service call which makes for a less stressful and more productive work environment.
The copy machine was first introduced in 1949 by Xerox and over the years it has transformed into the multifunctional digital copiers we have today that offer functions such as copying, faxing, scanning, printing, document storage, and image manipulation to name just a few features of the modern digital copiers. Today there are numerous manufacturers in the copier industry such as Xerox, Ricoh, Canon, Konica-Minolta, Hewlett-Packard, Brother, Kyocera-Mita, Sharp, and Toshiba to name a few. Within the last few years, the copier industry has made some major consolidations by buying out their competitors or merging with them as a result a market pressures. Many copier companies have recently started focusing on offering their customers information technology services along with the copiers they sell as a way to increase profit margins in a very competitive marketplace. At the end of the day, most copiers function the same way when it comes to the copy process and vary slightly in how they function with the choice of technology they choose to implement to accomplish the copy process. Of course some copy machine brands are more user friendly and and reliable than other copy machine brands, but then again this all depends on the perspective of the customer.
TIPS AND ADVICE
Many of the tips and advice I offer on here are based on my 20 years of experience in the industry. I encourage you to always do your own research and to avoid serious injury, never attempt to try and repair a copier. Always refer to the owners manual when attempting to remove paper jams and add toner. If you have any questions that you would like answered just leave a comment on the bottom of the page and I will gladly address your question.
- If you removed a paper jam or loaded toner and now you have toner all of your clothes don’t panic.You can use a vacuum cleaner hose attachment and it will remove the toner off your clothes. Never use warm water to remove toner out of clothes because the heat will ‘set’ the toner in permanently. If you choose to wash your clothes to get the toner out always wash them in cold water.
- The copier jams every morning when I try and use it. Remove the paper from all of the trays and flip it over and reload the paper. Also try reloading fresh paper out of the wrapper in all the trays. Paper left in copiers overnight are often subjected to the conditions of the workplace environment which can damage the paper, especially in humid or very dry conditions causing the copier to jam.
- The finished copies come out with a dramatic paper curl. The paper inside the tray is damaged by humidity and should be replaced with fresh paper directly out of the wrapper. Never leave paper sitting out of the wrapper for long periods of time.
- The copier keeps saying “add toner”. Double check that the cap on the toner bottle has been removed properly as instructed on the bottle. Is it the correct toner bottle for that brand of copier and model? Try opening and closing the copier front door to help ‘cycle’ the machine will typically add toner to the hopper, especially if the copier was being used when the “add toner” light was on.
- The copier keeps jamming in the ‘hot section’ like accordion.When you pull the paper out of the ‘hot section’ (fuser unit) are the edges of the copy all black? Are you copying a book or magazine that is producing black borders on the copies? If so, then you need to eliminate the black borders because it will continue to jam in the fuser unit. The reason is that the rollers in the ‘hot section’ can’t stay clean fast enough, and eventually the copies start to stick with all of the the excess toner build up on the rollers. Try using the edit feature on your copier and eliminate the black borders, especially when copying books.
- Should I buy a toner or ink based printer?This all depends on the volume of prints you plan on making. My personal recommendation is to buy a toner based printer because you will have less issues with the ink drying up, especially if you have low print volume. If you haven’t already noticed, the ink-jet printers are fairly cheap , but the ink is very expensive and has a tendency to clogged up or dry up if you don’t use it often. I know what you are thinking, you can buy ink refill cartridges for cheap or buy a kit to refill the ink yourself. Don’t waste your time with these tricks and stick with the toner based printers even though the initial costs may be slightly higher, you will be happy you did. The one drawback to buying a toner based printer is that the initial toner cartridge that is in the box only lasts for about 500-1000 prints. New toner cartridges can last you 5k-10k depending on the type of prints you are making. I recently purchased a toner based Brother DCP-7040 from Amazon for my home office at a great price, and it has been a very reliable multifunctional device that prints, scans, and copies. I had several ink-jet printers in the past and I no longer own any of them, so do your own research and decide what works best for you.
- The copier keeps bending the corner of the copy. Most likely there is a piece of paper stuck in the paper path somewhere. First, power off the copier or printer. Then one trick you can use is to slide out the paper tray and take 3-4 sheets of paper and fold it in half, then gently slide the paper where the paper path is and start manually feeding the folded piece of paper in on an angle with the corner of the paper going in first with the objective of trying to push out the lodged piece of paper stuck in the corner. You can try this technique on all accessible paper paths that are likely color coded and labeled with handles and knobs to help spin the paper through.
- Should I purchase a new or used copier? It really depends on what your are trying to accomplish, your budget, and the volume of copies you plan on making every month. There are plenty of used and refurbished copiers that are available on the market and this is an excellent way to save money if you plan on keeping the monthly volume low. If you do plan on purchasing a used copier from a dealer or private party, always ask to see the service history on the copier to gauge the reliability of it, especially if you are going to spend a decent amount of money on the copier. I would also test run some copies on it before buying it, and making 20 copies is not even close to a test run. Try making at least 250 copies of a standard business letter and use all of the features on the copier such as stapling and duplex. If the dealer balks at this suggestion then walk away and take your business elsewhere. A private party may take issue with using to much paper, so go to Staples or Office Depot and pick up a ream of paper for $4.00 to resolve that issue. If it is a smaller desktop copier then you can limit the copies to 100 and even run half of those copies as blanks so you don’t use up all of the toner or ink. The key is to make sure it doesn’t jam and the copy quality can be determined in about 50 copies or less. When you are shopping for a used copier try and look for the brand name copiers such as Ricoh, Xerox, Canon, Hewllet-Packard, and Konica-Minolta, all of which I consider high quality equipment and companies that will have current toner supplies and parts on hand. New copiers have all the benefits of the latest technology and a warranty that typically comes with purchasing something new which can give you peace of mind, but if you plan on keeping the monthly print volume low then it could be worth looking into a used copier. Do your own research and take into consideration that your current copier needs may not be enough if you plan on growing your business. For used copiers and printers I suggest visiting a decent site at www.usedcopiersale.com
- How do I clean my copier? If you own a small desktop copier you can simply use a small vacuum cleaner with a nozzle attachment to cleanup paper dust and small amounts of toner on the inside door. I do not recommend using compressed air on any copiers because all it simply does is push the dust and toner into the mechanical components of the copier which can cause jamming issues and copy quality issues.
More to follow soon!
Copyright 2011